Drifting Snow: An Arctic Search by Houston, James - 1992

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd, 1992 Ex-Library. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Canadian Edition.. "Taken south as a very small child from her Inuit-Eskimo parents in the Canadian Arctic - to save her life from tuberculosis - Elizabeth was one o f the children whose identity papers were lost. As a young teenager, she returns to the Arctic in search of her family and her own culture and language. She decides to stay on Nesak Island with a friendly Inuit-Eskimo family that includes U v i l u , a girl about her own age, and Poota, a somewhat older boy. Uvilu and Poota both speak some English, taught to them by an itinerant teacher who comes seasonally to give them school lessons. Days of near starvation, alleviated when th e g ir ls i n th e s mall settlement discover a way to go under the thick sea ice and collect clams; weeks of summer plenty that follow on the mainland, catching salmon, hunting caribou and geese, then celebrating with dance and song; a return cr os sin g t o t he is lan d tha t is nearly fatal as sea ice and storms close in on their frail boat - all are part of the life Elizabeth shares....an exciting story of one girl's search for her identity.Neat tight hardy read ex\ -library copy with usual marks ffep missing.